A Teaching on Bodhicitta

During the Kalachakra empowerments in Washington DC with His Holiness the Dalai Lama, in July of 2011, HE Jetsün Khandro Rinpoche bstowed an evening teaching on the topic of bodhicitta to a crowd of several thousand.

Note: due to a technical problem, the final 5 minutes of the teaching were not recorded, however the essential meaning of the teaching is complete.

pd lyons has been writing for a long time now and hopes to continue doing so for even longer. Work has appeared in many mags & zines through out the world. Has two collections of poetry published by Lapwing Press Belfast. For further info please visit pdlyons blog for poetry publishing info and new releases: https://pdlyons.wordpress.com/

About the Editor

A.J. Huffman is a poet and freelance writer in Daytona Beach, Florida. She has previously published four collections of poetry: The Difference Between Shadows and Stars, Carrying Yesterday, Cognitive Distortion, and . . . And Other Such Nonsense. She has also published her work in national and international literary journals such as Avon Literary Intelligencer, Writer’s Gazette, and The Penwood Review. Find more about A.J. Huffman, including additional information and links to her work on faceboook and twitter.

On July 28th, 29th and 30th, we will not consume any animal products as part of Animal Freedom Day. Animal Freedom Day is a global event that aims to raise awareness towards the environmental crisis, human health and animal welfare. People all over the world will abstain from eating meat on these three days or engage in the practice of Life Release.

Please make a difference, help us bring compassion to animals and the earth. Find out more about Animal Freedom Day. And watch the trailer for the new movie, Don’t Eat Me.

The Tara Shedrup Center, Hartford KTC, and Chodron Foundation Global Life-Protecting Movement are working to put kindness in motion to humans, animals, the planet, and to create a more peaceful, harmonious, and sustainable world.

All beings tremble before violence.
All fear death, all love life.
See yourself in others.
Then whom can you hurt?
What harm can you do?

‎”Letting the mind to become peaceful and staying in meditation state of stillness free from many thoughts is called shamata or sustained calm. Recognizing the empty nature of the mind within that state of calm is called vipashyana or profound insight. Uniting shamata and vipashyana is the essence of meditation practice. It is said:

Look at the mind,
There is nothing to see.
Seeing nothing, we see the Dharma,
The source of all buddhas.”

“Fruition” implies that at some future time you will feel good. One of the most powerful Buddhist teachings is that as long as you are wishing for things to change, they never will. As long as you’re wanting yourself to get better, you won’t. As long as you are oriented toward the future, you can never just relax into what you already have or already are.

When I lost my mother I lost the past as well as future. No one would ever know me as well as she did and no one would ever remember me like she did – again. Today is Bastille Day. There are french songs as I pass through the NPR stations onto a local Italian show. After an immense bit of Italian speaking they play the theme from Zorba. My mother liked Zorba. My mother also liked the scene in Casablanca where they played La Marseillaise, as much as she liked the farewell scene – the airport fog a kiss a hill of beans the usual suspects. I wonder did she dance like Zorba once? Were there foggy farewell airport kisses in her life? If you watch Zoba can you be Zorba? Zorba envy or Zorba memory? Who knows. That was the past I lost as well as any possible future from which to ask when I lost my mother.